New PUBG jungle map, emote and friend systems, and more changes planned for 2018
PlayerUnknown’s BattleGrounds might have left early access last December, but developer Bluehole is not done yet with development of the famous Battle Royale pioneer title. Now, creator Brendan Greene has published the game’s roadmap for the next year, promising a much more realistic and stable game with major updates set for every two months
The most interesting content update for now will be a new, smaller 4X4 map to play on, offering higher player density and faster matches, with a traditional 8X8 map set for later in the year.A new emote and friends system will also be released on the test server, with plenty of laughing, dancing and raging animations on offer.
Greene says that the team has some new Game Modes for the title, though he won’t be specific about what those will be. New vehicles and new weapon attachments are also on deck, and should show up sometime this year as well. You’ll see new achievements, in-game friend lists and suqad voice chat in the main menu, plus some extra character customization features like parachute and weapon skins. In addition, limb and vehicle bullet penetration systems should go live on the text servers later this year. There will be new vehicle, environmental and player-centric sounds added, too, like audio for vehicles that skid, rain on vehicle roofs and additional breathing sounds for players depending on whether they’re running, aiming down a rifle sight or just holding their breath.
The team plans to continue to optimize its servers and game starting with the upcoming #7 update to make PlayerUnknown’s BattleGrounds a better experience for players, as well as continued work on combating cheating. “We are continuing our daily work to combat cheaters, improve server stability and further optimize our servers and clients,” wrote Greene in his post. “It is impossible to solve these problems once and for all, but our goal is to continuously improve in this regard.”
Lastly, the developer promises to move toward making PUBG an eSport title, though Greene admits there’s still a long way to go, especially in terms of watchability. The team also wants to expand its Custom Game System to add more control for those who want to create custom games, and plans to introduce a PUBG Developer API, as well, to help developers access some of the match data from the game.
You can view some of the new changes coming to the test client today and live next week here. PUBG is now the third highest-selling game ever on Steam, according to Gabe Newell himself. Despite being defeated in player base and views on Twitch by Fortnite, the game is doing pretty well and the new changes are refreshing to say the least.
